Initiatives

Overview

The financial crisis and its economic aftershocks have spawned the first serious examination of the structure of our current banking system and the public policies that have fueled consolidation over the last 30 years and untethered financial institutions from their communities.

Overview

Access to the Internet is an essential infrastructure for any community that cares about economic development, quality of life, and educational opportunities. Unfortunately, most communities are presently dependent on a few unaccountable absentee corporations that act as gatekeepers to...

Overview

Wind and sun are available everywhere, so renewable energy can be economically harnessed at small scales across the country. This nature of renewable energy, and the exponential increase of renewable energy generation, promises to decentralize the nation’s grid system. ...

Overview

At the founding of the American Republic the word “private” had pejorative connotations. Derived from the Latin word “privare”, private meant to divide or tear apart. A privateer was a pirate. The word “public” was an honorable adjective, often...

Overview

ILSR's Waste to Wealth program helps communities across the country create policies and practices that address citizens' environmental concerns and economic needs. We help citizens fight the incinerators and landfills that pollute their air and water, and drive property...

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The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://ilsr.org/alarming-pace-walmarts-continued-growth/

Walmart continues to expand, and rapidly. The company is now embarking on its third historic wave of store construction, with plans to build 440 to 460 “Neighborhood Market” stores over a two year period, presumably with many hundreds more to follow. There is a critical debate to be had right now about whether a company that already captures one-quarter of U.S. grocery sales should be allowed to grow to control one-third, or even half, of our food supply. Continue reading

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://ilsr.org/rule/states-amazon-sales-tax-map/

Amazon currently collects sales tax in 24 states. For more background and information on internet sales tax, including the legislative approaches taken by the states, as well as proposed Congressional legislation, see our Internet Sales Tax Fairness page. Continue reading

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://ilsr.org/lightly-regulated-states-friendly-small-businesses/

A new ranking of states based on “small business friendliness” gives low scores to those with more stringent environmental, labor, health & safety, and other regulations. The trouble with this analysis, however, is that many of the supposedly “unfriendly” states are actually home to much larger numbers of small businesses than the “friendly” states. Continue reading